Humanitarian Aid

The principle concern Linda Polman raises in her book is the fact that humanitarian aid is not making it to the right people. When INGO’s go into a country, they often have to give away a percent of their aid to warlords, generals of governments, etc in order to reach their destination and start helping the people they originally set out to help. Polman mentioned in her book that anywhere from 15-30 percent is a normal amount of aid given away to the ‘bad guys’ by INGOs. Often times a lot larger of a percent of aid finds itself in the wrong hands. I personally think this is ridiculous and appalling, but I also understand why it happens.

I think it is ridiculous and appalling because organizations should not have to negotiate with these groups (often considered terrorist groups) just to enter a country that usually does not even belong to the groups. These humanitarian aid organizations are usually entering countries that once belonged to the people they are trying to help, but have since been taken over by another country or terrorist group during war. The United States as a nation refuses to negotiate with terrorists so I cannot understand why we make an exception when it comes to humanitarian aid groups negotiating with these same terrorists. I understand that a lot of these humanitarian aid groups are not based out of America and do not have the same rules and mindset as we do, but that does not make them negotiating with terrorists and acceptable thing to do.

The reasoning behind my understanding of aid falling into the wrong hands is the fact that at least there is some good coming from it. A lot of things individuals do on a regular basis require some sacrifice before any good can come from their actions. These warlords are requiring percentages of aid and will block the humanitarian aid groups from traveling to their destination unless they are compensated. I assume that these warlords would have no problem killing the volunteers in these humanitarian aid groups if they attempted to get past the warlords without satisfying the warlords’ needs. If the individuals in these humanitarian aid organizations are killed or they cannot get through to the people in need, the mission becomes pointless and instead of what originally would have been only a percentage of the aid, every little bit of the aid will end up in the wrong hands or the money and supplies may not make it to any people in need at all and just have to return to the country it was donated from.   

In her book, Linda Polman states that, “Aid organizations are businesses dressed up like Mother Teresa.” By this, I believe Polman is trying to say that aid organizations look like they are doing an incredible amount of good on the surface, but really aren’t if you look in depth at the amount of good they are actually doing. As I previously discussed, a lot of the aid ends up in the wrong hands. They are taking people’s money (like businesses do) and resources and giving a fair percentage of them to the ‘bad guys’. Polman even mentions in her book that a humanitarian aid organization ended up helping Saddam Hussein’s regime earn $250 million in a single year, 1992. Humanitarian aid groups normally have a positive connotation in our minds but we need to start looking at them more critically and stop ignoring all the help they are actually giving the ‘bad guys’. This is what we can do to make humanitarian aid successful. We should be able to know exactly where our money and resources are going so that we can make an informed decision on whether we want to donate to these aid organizations or not. I feel that if we start putting more pressure on these aid organizations, they will stop being so generous with their donations to warlords and try harder to make sure a larger percent of the aid gets to the people in great need.    

Bibliography   

Polman, L., & Waters, L. (2010). Aid as a Weapon of War. In The crisis caravan: What's wrong with humanitarian aid? (pp. 95-105). New York: Metropolitan Books.